Nutrition: per slice

Ingredients

Butter is made when lactic-acid producing bacteria are added to cream and churned to make an…

140g golden caster sugar, plus 4 tbsp

300g plain flour

140g rice flour

Method

Place the butter and 140g sugar in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Tip in both the flours and a pinch of salt, then whizz until mixture comes together.

Using your hands, roughly spread the mixture out in a 20 x 30 x 4cm baking tray. Cover with cling film and smooth over until there are no wrinkles. Place in the fridge, uncooked, for at least 30 mins and up to 2 days.

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Remove cling film, then lightly mark the shortbread all over with a fork. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar, then bake for 20-25 mins. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 24 thin slices. Shortbread will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

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Comments, questions and tips

Made this today using a food processor. Followed the recipe exactly. It was lovely. Will make again and perhaps follow the comment of doing everything by hand.

majorkritz

5th Mar, 2016

look's great. i'm looking forward to making these for mothers day.

good-food-girl

12th Feb, 2016

Hello all,
Is ground rice the same thing as rice flour? I can't find rice flour but have ground rice.
Thank you :)

Barrybarfly

20th Jan, 2016

Gorgeous! I plan to try putting some chocolate chips in next time too!

Barrybarfly

20th Jan, 2016

Gorgeous! I plan to try running some chocolate chips into the mix next time too!

PHinch94

5th Aug, 2015

5.05

For those without a food processor, I just rubbed the ingredients together using cold rather than warmed butter.
The cooking time is good, and as I can't find any rice flour I use polenta/cornmeal with good results instead. A winner, lovely and crumbly!

Sr1light

29th Mar, 2015

5.05

Absolutely delicious - and the timing comments are correct. There's no way this cooks in such a short time, mine was in for a total of 55 minutes. I guess if you decided to roll it out and make biscuits it wouldn't take as long however it is soooo worth the wait. It is slightly cakey but also moist and crumbly. Great with a cuppa or served on the side with strawberries and ice cream. Halve the sugar topping (it's sweet enough) and put it on around 15 mins before it's ready to come out the oven.

IrishFlavia

18th Dec, 2014

3.8

I think this recipe is a bit too time consuming. Left my mix overnight and as I was rolling mine out to cut out stars (for xmas), the mix was much too dry and crumbly so I had to add some melted butter. The shortbread tasted good, but think I'll revert to the simpler all-in-one method next time, which in my opinion is just as good.

lulubee

30th Nov, 2014

5.05

Great recipe, even though I mis-read and forgot to put the cling film on in the fridge! I also allowed an extra 10 mins in the oven as it seemed a bit pale. Allowed to cool completely, and it's fab, crispy on the outside with a denser 'bite' towards the middle - exactly like shortbread should be. To the poster who doesn't have a food processor, mix the butter/sugar until pale and creamy, then add the flours. It won't ball together, but after a while looks like very large breadcrumbs and at this stage it's fine to press into the tin (which I lined with foil for an easier removal job.)

jcr

15th Nov, 2014

Please explain method for those of us who don't have a food processor to 'whizz' things in!

Pages

Thanks for your question. Ground rice is slightly coarser than rice flour so will provide a bit more texture. If you don't mind this then you can definitely substitute.

Baby_Thew

22nd Mar, 2017

Is it possible to replace the plain flour with rice flour? I'd like to make these for my friend who is gluten free.

goodfoodteam

27th Mar, 2017

We would suggest trying our gluten-free shortbread recipe as an alternative. You can leave out the orange zest altogether or use lemon zest instead. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2012/crisp-orange-shortbread

bhanacharaid

1st Dec, 2015

Im going to wave my credentials here. As a Scot who is always asked to make shortbread as it is usually excellent -this is my family recipe, though I make it in half the quantity at a time because...
THE SECRET OF TRULY EXCELLENT SHORTBREAD IS...forget the food processor. Use the above ingredients, first weigh out and mix all the dry ingredients then add soft, room temperature butter in a block. Then-using a kneading motion, work the dry ingredients into the block of butter. It's not hard, just counter-intuitive to those sure they ought to crumble it together. Go on kneading until all the dry has been worked in and further knead until the ball is smooth. I never fanny about with cling film and fridges... I use a victoria sandwich tin with a removable base. grease it then lightly dust with flour, work the dough in until it evenly fills the tin, prick it all over with a fork, cut ut into 8 pieces across the diagonal then cook -yes, for a shade longer than it says here, until the top is firm and the sides just drawn away slightly from the tin. You will have to cut the lines again when it has cooled a little, but you now have traditional 'Petticoat Tails' - named, one legend has it, after the fashions of Mary Queen of Scots French maids.

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